Ethel Cain: "book, Movie, All That Stuff… It Is My Highest Goal"

Ethel Cain: "book, movie, all that stuff… it is my highest goal"

Photo: Ethel Cain for 'enfants riches déprimés', 2024

Ethel Cain, any updates on the Preacher's Daughter book?

ETHEL CAIN: "Writing a book takes a long time. I've got a lot of stuff I'm doing right now, but yeah, I'm just kind of… whenever things are meant to happen, they will happen. I am a very, very patient person, and I will create things as time allows and when I feel led to create those things. I don't want to put out a half-assed book. I've never written a book before, but I'm also very neurotic, and I can't have somebody else write it for me. So I've just been writing and scrapping, writing and scrapping, and reading, writing, and scrapping, just trying to own my writing style and whatnot.

I'm sure it will be a good long while before that book comes out, but you know, I like to give things plenty of room to breathe and really foster a healthy creative environment. I never want to feel like I'm creating because I have to; I always want to feel like I'm creating because I want to, because I think that yields the best results. So yeah, I don't know… book, movie, all that stuff… it is my highest goal. That's the way that I work: I set the highest goal I can, and if I could have anything I wanted, if money and time were no object, I aim as high as I can go, and I work towards it. And if I die or lose a limb or something that hinders me from doing it, well, I had a good run. But that will be the kind of mountain on the horizon that I'm always going for.

So, who knows? I might be 50 before all this stuff is done; I literally have no idea. But I'm just having fun and working on it in the meantime. So yeah, it'll come at some point, but it's always on the horizon for me. It's always in the back of my mind. So, one of these days… But I'm really excited. I can't wait."

Ethel Cain, April 10, 2024 (Audio transcription. Excerpt from Ethel Cain live on YouTube.)